War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy [90]
“I humbly thank you, Prince,” replied one of the officers, taking pleasure in conversing with such an important staff official. “An excellent place. We passed just by the park, saw two deer, and such a wonderful house!”
“Look, Prince,” said another, who very much wanted to take one more little pie, but was embarrassed, and who therefore pretended to be surveying the area, “look, our infantrymen have already gotten in there. Over there in the little meadow beyond the village, three of them are dragging something. They’ll ransack that castle,” he said with obvious approval.
“They will, they will,” said Nesvitsky. “No, but what I’d like,” he added, chewing a little pie with his handsome, moist mouth, “is to climb in there.”
He pointed to the convent with its towers, visible on the hilltop. He smiled, his eyes narrowed and lit up.
“Wouldn’t that be nice, gentlemen?”
The officers laughed.
“At least to put a fright into those little nuns. There are some Italian girls, young ones, they say. Really, I’d give five years of my life!”
“They must be bored, too,” an officer, a bolder one, said laughing.
Meanwhile, the officer of the suite, who was standing in front, was pointing something out to the general; the general was looking through the glass.
“Well, that’s it, that’s it,” the general said angrily, taking the glass from his eye and shrugging his shoulders, “that’s it, they’re going to fire on the crossing. And what are they dawdling for?”
On the other side the naked eye could make out the enemy and his battery, from which a puff of milk-white smoke appeared. The smoke was followed by the sound of a distant shot, and it could be seen how our troops speeded up at the crossing.
Nesvitsky, huffing, got up and, smiling, went over to the general.
“Wouldn’t Your Excellency like a bite to eat?” he said.
“A bad business,” said the general, not answering him, “our men have been dawdling.”
“Shouldn’t I ride over, Your Excellency?” said Nesvitsky.
“Yes, please do,” said the general, repeating what had already been ordered in detail, “and tell the hussars that they are to cross last and set fire to the bridge as I said, and inspect the flammable material while still on the bridge.”
“Very good, sir,” replied Nesvitsky.
He called the Cossack with the horse, told him to put the bag and flask away, and lightly swung his heavy body into the saddle.
“I’ll stop by those nuns, really,” he said to the officers, who were looking at him smilingly, and rode down the hill along a winding path.
“Well, let’s give it a try, Captain, see how far it will carry!” said the general, turning to the artillerist. “Have some fun out of boredom.”
“Crew, to your pieces!” the officer commanded, and in a minute the artillery crew ran merrily from their campfires and loaded up.
“One!” came the command.
Number one leaped back briskly. A deafening metallic sound rang out, and a shell flew whistling over the heads of all our men at the foot of the hill and, falling far short of the enemy, showed by a puff of smoke the place where it hit and burst.
The faces of the soldiers and officers cheered up at this sound; everybody stood up and began watching the movements of our troops below, visible as on the palm of the hand, and further away the movements of the advancing enemy. Just then the sun came all the way out from behind the clouds, and the beautiful sound of the solitary shot and the shining of the bright sun merged into one cheerful and merry impression.
VII
Two enemy cannonballs had already gone flying over the bridge, and there was a crush on the bridge itself. In the middle of the bridge, dismounted from his horse, his fat body pressed to the railing, stood Prince Nesvitsky. He looked back laughingly at his Cossack, who stood a few paces behind him holding the two horses by the bridle. The moment Prince Nesvitsky tried to move on, soldiers and carts pushed him back and pressed him to the railing again, and there was nothing left for him but to smile.
“You there, brother!” the Cossack said to a supply soldier with